Carolingian Cross
A pleasing design, representing the Holy Trinity for some people, or to others, Sacred Geometry.
Carolingian Cross
Carolingian Cross
A variation of the Everlasting Cross is the Carolingian Cross, named after the Carolingian dynasty, a Frankish noble family that can be traced back to the seventh century. One member of this family, Pepin the Short, was crowned King of the Franks by the church, who saw this as a useful way to extend their authority over the secular world. A later and greater Carolingian monarch was Charlemagne, crowned in 800 A.D. making Western Europe an extension of the Roman Empire.
Coincidentally, the cross has a similarly sounding name to Cardinham Cross, an ancient Celtic Cross found in the walls of the 15th century village church of Cardinham, near Bodmin, Cornwall, England. This Cardinham Cross incorporates the Carolingian design.
The Carolingian Cross is made by extending the lines of a Triquetra (from the Latin tri 'three' and quetrus 'cornered'). In Christian art, the triquetra represents the Trinity as one God. The triquetra is found also in Celtic knotwork, sometimes referred to as a Knotted Cross or Celtic Twirls Cross, and is popular with Neopagans to represent the interdependence in nature of Land, Sea and Sky, or the spiritual interdependence in man's Mind, Body and Soul.
Other three-legged symbols include the Triskele and the Tomoe. This is a symbol of three commas or teardrops, chasing one another round a circle, and used by groups ranging from Germanic neopagans to Buddhists.
In Japan both the Triquetra and Tomoe are used as kamon, a sort of heraldic coat of arms (ka means 'family' and mon means 'crest'). The Triquetra symbol is the Musubi mitsugashiwa crest.
Such beautiful geometrical designs are often used in examples of mystical Sacred Geometry.
See also Everlasting Cross
